Mountain hares in Scotland are subject to large-scale culling on grouse moors to reduce tick burdens on red grouse. The welfare and conservation implications are deeply contested.
Mountain hare culls involve shooting animals that may be wounded rather than killed outright, with high potential for significant wounding rates across open moorland. Coordinated culls can kill thousands of animals over a few days, representing acute welfare impacts at population scale. The 2021 Scottish licensing requirement has improved oversight but enforcement is challenging across remote moorland. Mountain hares are social, intelligent lagomorphs whose suffering from injuries sustained in culls is significant. The ecological justification for culling — tick reduction for grouse — has been questioned by research showing limited effectiveness, making the welfare cost harder to justify.